Marta Chudolinska Named a Finalist for the Doug Wright Award

Marta Chudolinska is one of five finalists for the Best Book category of the Doug Wright Awards for her graphic novel, Back + Forth (The Porcupine's Quill). In a Ten Questions interview with Open Book last fall, Chudolinska described her book as "...the story of a young woman coming to terms with her place in the world, her sexuality and her self. The story follows the character through her daily grind in Vancouver. She falls asleep on the bus and wakes up to find herself on the Toronto subway….. Throughout the book she wakes up back and forth between these two places and two separate lives."

Also nominated for Best Book are Seth (George Sprott: (1894-1975), Drawn and Quarterly), Marc Bell (Hot Potatoe. Drawn and Quarterly), Diane Obomsawin (Kaspar, Drawn and Quarterly) and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Red: A Haida Manga, Douglas and McIntyre). In addition to the Best Book category, awards are given for Best Emerging Talent and the Pigskin Peters Award. The awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 8 at the Toronto Reference Library's Bram & Bluma Appel Salon.

Open Book is celebrating the outstanding graphic novels and comics published here in Ontario and throughout the country with Whazamo! profiles, contests, videos and a series of original literary comics curated by Vepo Studios. Check out Open Book's Whazamo! page all month long to keep up to date.

In today's Whazamo! profile, artist and zine-maker Megan Speers talks to Open Book about her latest projects, her workspace and the coffee that fuels the engines. She is a frequent participant at book– and zine-fairs, and her wordless novel Wanderlust is published by The Porcupine's Quill.

Contest! Enter to win Wanderlust and three other fantastic graphic novels from The Porcupine's Quill and Open Book. Click here for details.